The lawsuit alleges that Mayor Rita Rhoads violated the Missouri Constitution's prohibition against nepotism when she hired her son-in-law, Matthew Spores, to fix a damaged city sign in June.

According to court documents, the check to pay Spores was written to MDS Construction. When Spores was unable to deposit the check because he no longer had a business account with the MDS name, Rhoads wrote a check to him on a city account.

Zahnd said that court documents also indicated that a city employee told Rhoads she could not hire Spores to work for the city because of the nepotism ban.

Judge Owens Lee Hull Jr. issued a preliminary order Monday afternoon banning Rhoads from engaging in any activity or exercising any authority as mayor of Tracy for the time being.